-
Posts
3975 -
Joined
-
Quote:Yeah, that's kind of what I meant by "spread the wealth." Allow as many arcs to be recognized as possible, therefore, one category per arc.There is a disadvantage to this approach, that being that it's possible for a popular arc to sweep all the categories, which makes the whole thing kind of less interesting. Still, it's a discretion thing.
Quote:I'm not sure which arc you're referring to here, I didn't run everything but most of the stuff that won would have been my picks or at least something that I think deserved it - but otherwise it's a good idea. From an author's perspective it's not very helpful if someone just says they like your arc; it's much better if they give a brief explanation WHY they liked it. -
Quote:What arc is this from?It doesn't. Hence the warrant for Miss Liberty to stand trial for her acts of war in Grandville.
Quote:They are still a recognized Country with a "stable" government leading them, and their laws must be respected. Ms. Liberty does not totally believe in it (like you for this :P), which is starting some international flares of anger due to her stepping over her boundaries.
Quote:It would improve my opinion of the game if Portal Corporation were to find even one parallel dimension in which, on the day after Brass Monday, The Statesman used his power and prestige to bully every super-human who wanted to fight crime to join the police and submit to the local police chief, who wanted to fight for their country to join their country's armed services and serve under the authority of the commander in chief, in which superpowers were treated like any other implement of force wielded by a human being.
But that's not the world that Paragon Studios wrote.
Quote:Longbow are taking the pages out of Arachnos play book.
Establish a base of operations in your "enemies" backyard to continually harass them. I mean look at the other side of the damn in Faultline. Those Arachnos shouldn't be there, let alone the Sky Raiders.
So they are "rogues" in term & are fighting the "good" fight as seen through the eyes of Miss Liberty, themselves & whoever else eats up there rhetoric.
The Sky Raiders are terrorists and mercenaries, and are totally irrelevant to this discussion.
Longbow, on the other hand, are constantly portrayed as "the good guys." Our heroes are forced to swallow their rhetoric. Our villains are forced to fight them because they are "good" and we are "evil."
Quote:In Guassian's arc in RWZ, you come to see the Longbow a tad overzealous & feel like they are the LAW! but if they are "unsanctioned", they should not be involved in taking care of the Rogue Vanguard members, as Vanguard is sanctioned! They can contract out Heroes & Villains to handle issues in the RWZ. -
Quote:Not necessarily breaking free from Arachnos, but some indication that you are a free-thinking operative and not just another mindless red shirt. A player villain should have some ambition of their own. If you choose to pursue it as a member of Arachnos, that's fine, but even at low level there should be some indication that you are not content to be just another soldier.I'm sorry that you expected an arc where you learn to think for yourself and break free from Arachnos. In my opinion that was the first mistake of the original VEAT arcs; assuming that we would want to become Destined Ones ourselves, and this soon in our careers.
And that Destined One thing is incredibly contrived. Canon content already shoves it down our throats, and I am certainly not suggesting you do so as well. -
Quote:I think no. Spread the wealth, I say.In the judging process we eliminated arcs that were nominated for more categories. This gave us more arcs to nominate but it also meant that arcs lost a chance of winning a category they were nominated for. I am curious what everybody else thinks of this ruling. Should we allow double or tripple categories per arcs next year or not?
Although this should be spelled out in advance, so people whose nomination gets nominated for another category can choose to nominate a different arc.
I don't believe we had any issues with having to decide which category the multi-nominations would be in, since they all got an automatic pass in one category due to multiple nominations, but some plan for how to deal with arcs nominated for multiple categories that don't get the popularity vote in one should be in place just in case. Maybe have the judges decide a few days before nominations close?
Quote:Re. Authors voting for themselves or not: I think it should be set up to be all of one or the other. In other words, either authors should not be allowed to vote for themselves, or they should automatically be considered as having voted for their own arc without the option to change it. With all respect, this issue became a gamemanship thing, and every effort should be made to eliminate gamemanship in future awards.
Quote:Re. Previous award winners: I may be opening another can of wrigglers here, but I think previous winners of any kind should be ineligible. I'm all for spreading the wealth and recognizing arcs that haven't been recognized since there's so little recognition to be had. Dev's Choices, Hall of Fame, Guest Authors, and Previous Player Award Winners have had some spotlight already. Shine it on other people.
Quote:Re. The voting process: Unfortunately, public voting can devolve into a popularity contest, either deliberately or accidentally. If one creator is a member of a big SG, for instance, and word gets out about his/her entry, you can get a dozen votes for that creator's arc from people that only vote in that category. Ideally, the voting should be conducted by a committee chosen in advance, however the amount of work necessary would be insane.
Any time you have anything chosen by the people, there will be a possibility of a popularity contest. I'd hope the people involved are mature enough to go beyond that and vote for what they considered the best arcs. Sadly, it seems in at least one case I'm wrong. Possibly require voters to add a brief comment, stating why they chose the arcs they did?
Quote:Mandating voters to cast in at least two categories could be an option, but that has its problems, too. I'm not certain what the solution would be, but we don't want this to become a popularity contest instead of a contest based on the merits of the arcs. If public voting does continue, however, I think it should be by PM to Bubba or his designees. That would eliminate other issues of gamesmanship. And, looking back at whether or not authors should vote for their own work, it would also make it much less problematic for them to do so (or not) if their decisions aren't being scrutinized in public. -
Quote:If you can vote for yourself for president, you should be able to vote for your own arc. If you don't think it's good enough that you'd at least consider voting for it, you shouldn't have published it. Preventing people from voting for themselves can cheapen their vote. Preventing people form voting at all in a category they are nominated in unfairly prevents nominees from recognizing others' work.Author voting: I allowed author voting, and it didn't cause any upsets, but it did have the possibility to. If I stick with a 2 vote system, I thought one better possibility is to assume every author would vote for themselves for first ignoring any other factors, and allow them only one second place vote.
Quote:The nomination process: I wanted to avoid allowing authors to nominate their own arcs which I thought would create a massive flood of arcs that I wasn't prepared to take on. But this nomination process created the problem that a few of the arcs were by authors who are no longer active, so it really didn't matter to them whether they won or not. Also, many of the authors didn't know they were nominated until towards the end of the process (my fault for not better notifying them as I should) One thought is to have authors post their arcs for qualification in one thread, and have players choose nominations from the qualification thread in a second thread. That might be a little convoluted though.
There were a few problematic arcs nominated, that hadn't been updated in ages, and suffered from playability issues as a result. Those arcs didn't make it past judging due to those issues. I think it's up to the nominators to make sure the arcs they nominate are up to date.
Quote:The categories themselves: There was a bit of conflict over the level range categories. One of the TO arcs, which ended up winning, contained an AV in it, which many thought were too tough for a TO range arc, but many others thought differently. Also, in the so-called "Epic" category, some felt that Blap Blap Blappy Day had a disadvantage because it was not "epic" in feel, even though it covered the level range.
For the record, I don't find "The Most Important Thing" to be particularly epic either.
Quote:The number of arcs for voters: There was a large amount of arcs for possible voters to play through in a limited amount of time. It's hard to pin down a correct amount of time for something like this, but I ended up with a lot of votes in all the categories, many people who voted in all the categories, and many who voted in most. -
Quote:This is a massive stretch. Of course I wouldn't put it past Longbow to try to stretch a loophole like this.3) If you go back over the canonical history, there's a loophole big enough to fly a giant robot through, more or less imposed on the world by Statesman when one of his incursions into Russia nearly brought about global nuclear war: the "hot pursuit" rule. Superheroes and their sidekicks (only) are allowed to pursue supervillains (only) across national borders.
Now let's case-by-case it: Mercy: In theory, the Longbow you see in Mercy Island are Miss Liberty's sidekicks, in hot pursuit of supervillains who've escaped from the Zig, like you.
Quote:St. Martial: WHAT? THE? FLAGNOG? This is the one that utterly baffles me; what in the heck are Longbow agents doing sneaking around the northwestern part of St. Martial?
They're also all over the Grandville beaches, and have established countless bases in other parts of the Isles. How does building and staffing a base constitute "hot pursuit?" -
Congratulations to the winners.
-
Quote:You could repeat some dialogue in a clue. Perhaps the "mission complete" clue, since it has more space and defeating him ends the mission. Then you can use colored text to indicate the "other speaker," since everybody knows that people talk funny when they're possessed.The problem with the dialogue is there are 2 people speaking from one person with no way to indicate that in the output.
You do not deliberately kill him, but his body can not handle the strain of the simultaneous physical and psychic struggle that is going on.
Quote:If I can use a Lt. for a captive objective (Not sure if I can, need to check that.) then the current Madness Mage will be gone and the level difference will be gone. But if I am stuck with a boss, there is nothing I can do except decide between 5-10 and 11-15 for level ranges. That is the only boss in the CoT at that level and there is nothing that spans the range. I can set the mission levels to 5-14, but believe me, you don't want to meet a level 11 Madness Mage at level 5.
Quote:Because until this arc, no one knew he had those powers to block them? It is kind of like asking why the Japanese didn't stop the Manhattan Project so we couldn't drop atomic bombs on them. -
The Tangled Weave
ID # 338575
This arc is billed as an alternate to the canon VEAT arcs, which apparently are lame. My widow is all of level 16 and I don't remember anything of the starting VEAT arcs except that I got to have a real costume, so I have no basis for comparison. We'll see how this arc stands on its own merits.
My contact is Kalinda, and right away she sends me to flush out a traitor within Arachnos. I walk into an Arachnos base, and am pleasantly surprised not to find a bunch of Arachnos shooting at me. They're quite friendly actually. I upload the fake data, and a bunch of hostile Arachnos show up, thinking I'm the traitor. My Arachnos friends are having none of that, and help me out. I can see why Jenkins got demoted, but I'm not sure Arachnos would use so generic a rank as Private. It doesn't sound evil and spidery.
Returning to Kalinda, I find that that plot has thickened. I'm now mixed up in Arachnos inter-faction rivalry. Ah, I get it, I'm still a member of Arachnos at this point right? Perhaps that should be spelled out right from the start. No matter, the traitor has been found, and someone else will track him down in a canon mission.
And now for something completely different: Snakes. Except I'm supposed to negotiate with them. I'm not sure how or why Kalinda managed to set up a truce with them, since she's sent countless lowbies out to exterminate them.
Ok, now I see what you're trying to imply here, but my canon discontinuity sense is still tingling. For one, why would Arachnos be actively assisting the Snakes? Tolerating them is one thing, but I just can't picture Arachnos deliberately keeping them around. For another, this still totally contradicts in-game material, I had to go to ParagonWiki and read the Snake info there. Some hints at this info within the arc would be good.
And now it's time for me to clear out some Infected. Aside from fighting for our amusement, they are a health hazard. What with Mercy Island being full of broken-down tenements and open cesspools, I'm not entirely trusting of Arachnos's health and safety regulations, but I'm a loyal soldier, so I do it. After a run-in with everyone's favorite exposed-brained mad scientist, I gather some Infected for study, although leaving them chained up in there might not be a good idea if Arachnos is going to release poison gas into the area.
And now it's time to foil a hero's pathetic attempt to infiltrate our glorious organization. Of course, those annoying Longdork pests are involved. The heroine's villainous identity is appropriately lame; she should blend right in. I destroy the longbow base, and am rewarded with a classic action movie pop-up.
What with the heroine rambling about Project: Destiny, I expected that this would be the part where I decide I want in, and hand Kalinda my resignation. But no. I'm off to meet with Dr. creed again, because an evil organization can never have enough mad scientists. I walk into an icky green fog, wade through a mass of Creed's assistants (recolored Vahz), rescue "Mr Geist," and finally try to recruit Dr. Creed himself.
At the end of this, I'm still not sure how it is a VEAT arc. My understanding is that the VEATs are Arachnos soldiers acting independently, but throughout this arc I'm doing what Kalinda says. There is no indication that I might have plans of my own, that don't involve doing what Arachnos tells me to. I am never acting on my own initiative, I am never discovering things Arachnos doesn't want me to know. And a VEAT, I would expect to be doing that.
The canon tie-in in the first two missions is a very nice touch. Kalinda's voice though, falls flat. She's far too brusque, not her mystical yet condescending self. Her dialogue is rather sparse as well, not much in the way of exposition. Since there are no clues, I'm relying on NPC dialogue and her briefings, and what I end up with is a string of "do this, do that." It truly is just a bunch of stuff that happens.
What you have here is a great framework for an alternate VEAT arc. Now just thread an actual "how I decided to stop doing everything Arachnos says and think for myself" story through it all, and you'll have yourself an arc. -
Quote:This experiment was started after the SSK system was introduced. I still don't want to be doing a lot of exemplaring. I am a set bonus junkie, and once I start accumulating them, I'd like to use them.I don't know if you've changed your mind on exemplaring since we got the SSK system and get to keep powers up to 5 levels above our combat level, so I included the 1-10 arc in here. I hope you'll enjoy one or both of these.
However, I haven't said that I'm no longer accepting arcs below level 10, so "The Tangled Weave" is next up.
Now I am no longer accepting arcs that cap out at level 10 or lower. -
Future's End
255895
Level range: Mostly 5-14, except for one 11-14 mission.
My contact is once again Mirror Spirit, and this time, it's being assumed I've run both of the previous arcs. She gets right into the story, doesn't bother with the exposition, and refers my adventures with Talshak.
So the Future Skulls are in our time, from a timeline that no longer exists because I stopped it, and "something" is trying to prevent us from interfering with them. She says we need to be subtle and avoid direct confrontation and blah blah blah so I pull out something sharp and pointy and go do some investigating, Scrapper style.
My informant is a Circle mage, currently being held captive by some Skulls. Once I disrupt their holding spell he decides we will all die...so why is he casting Fortitude on his Skull "captor?" Perhaps something other than a boss detail would be more suitable.
What he tells me after I beat him up is rather disturbing, and somewhat out of place for this level range. I didn't know the Circle were summoning ancient Oranbegans. I won't learn this for another 20 levels, so how does Bonesnap know not only what the CoT are, but also where to find the spells used? Mirror Spirit's explanation for how an ordinary Bone Daddy can cause this much trouble is a nice touch though, and reminds me of a friend who accepted a bet to get a petless Mastermind to 50.
I beat him up again, even though he tries to escape, thus getting him out of the way. Although it sounds like he was planning to get himself out of the way anyway, so I'm sort of wondering why I didn't just save myself the effort. This is how many times I've beaten him up now? This mission doesn't have much in it other than Bonesnap, it could probably be combined with Mission 1 without losing anything.
My next task is to go take out some Legacy Chain who have supposedly turned to the dark side, all the way in the Rogue Isles. The fact of a newbie hero getting to the Rogue Isles on the word of Mirror Spirit isn't explained. The Legacy Chain are all over the Hollows, maybe the evil ones should take over one of their bases there?
I walk into a fight between the good Legacy Chain and the bad ones, and run into an allied group of those winged guys that died before I got there in the first arc. Wouldn't the Legacy Chain question the orders of their now-evil leader, seeing as he had clearly wandered over to the dark side? "They're held by some spells" is a bit of a cop-out, since so far we've been dealing with magical summoning, not magical compulsion. Also, seeing as they are dedicated to combating evil magic, wouldn't they suspect that just such evil magic might have corrupted their leader? And the dialogue implies that I deliberately killed him; not very heroic, I should perhaps be going after whoever decided a level 11 (dev-created) boss should have a pet and chain knockback.
He does manage to tell me how the Future Skulls are getting to our time though, and again it's up to me to stop them. Again there are unanswered questions: If they're just spirits possessing people, how do these people turn into Future Skulls themselves? If they can come back in time, why don't they go back to before I stopped them in the first arc?
This mission has an odd technical issue as well, as the spawns are bigger than they should be on +0/x0. Two lieutenants at once, with Shadow Fall and Twilight Grasp are a pain to fight. Very Scrapper-appropriate, if not particularly heroic, boss defeat text on the Bonesnapper. Ah, ok so the Legacy Chain were possessed. Which makes the possessed Skulls turning into Death Skulls make even less sense, and doesn't quite jive with the assertion that not many had gotten through.
Ah, ok, now the Death Skulls make sense. The final mission is rather anti-climatic, since I've already fought two of the brides and I don't learn anything I didn't already know.
As an arc on it's own, this needs far more exposition. As a conclusion to a trilogy, it leaves too many loose ends. What is up with those winged guys, and what is this "Seeker" they speak of? A mysterious ally is fine, but I learn absolutely nothing other than that they are on my side. I feel the "Wizard did it" explanation was overused as well. Bonesnap is described as a savant at summoning, but how does that help him get his hands on Zoria's spells? Furthermore, "summoning" is generally taken to mean calling up weird entities, not bringing objects from the future. And I'm pretty sure the Pillar of Ice and Flame does not work that way. And how is it that his abilities are only now being blocked, and no one thought to block them before?
The author mentioned somewhere that he constantly updates the arcs based on feedback, and unfortunately it shows; this one is most recent, has the fewest plays, and has the most issues. Aside from the CoT boss being friendly to his "captors" and that weird spawning issue with mission 4, it's all plot points. This arc could really use some smoothing out, get rid of anything not directly relevant to the overall storyline rather than trying to handwave it with "it's magic," and clean up the canon issues. Oh, and fix that level range. -
Temporal scaling. You go back in time to before you had to go to the bathroom.
-
Quote:I didn't play it. If I see an AV warning on a pre-SO arc, I generally don't play it. If I see an Extreme anything warning at any level, I don't play it. And yes, I am an experienced player.Then you shouldn't be playing a arc that tells you upfront that it has EBs and AVs in it, and certainly not playing it below the level it was intended for (10-20) if you're not already an experienced player. There is plenty of other content out there that babies the player, especially the canon content.
I stop expecting to be babied when I get to SOs and my character stops sucking. Pulling every spawn and resting every five seconds is not my idea of a good time. -
Quote:Well that is the beauty of CoX, as opposed to some other MMOs: teaming is encouraged, but you can solo if you want to.Don't they require teaming on every TF/SF? I don't think they've admitted to any such thing and it seems counter the whole point of a MMO.
MA allows us to create story arcs, not TFs. You can't set a "must have x number of players of at least level x" requirement on your arc, so you don't get to create a TF, and that is the only part of CoX that requires a team.
Quote:I think I understand now some of the harsh reviews I've read on these forums if you guys really expect amateur mission creators to do better than the people who've trained to do this stuff for years and/or do it for a living. -
I believe Ouroboros still doesn't allow invites mid-arc. MA has allowed mid-arc invites since the very early days of i14.
-
-
"Lrning2play" is what TO-level content is for, which is why it is designed around the assumption that you DON'T know how to play.
-
Quote:Anything that forces teaming is bad. The devs admitted as much when they allowed AVs to downgrade to EBs for soloers.Personally that's the reason I liked it. To beat it you just about have to team at low levels and you also get the satisfaction of being able to come back to the arc later once you get to higher levels if you want to try soloing it. I like this kind of arc cause it has replayability built right into it rather than forcing me to adjust my difficulty slider every time I want more of a challenge.
An arc should be playable by characters within the level range to which the arc is set.
Quote:I know some have said that there shouldn't be an EB/AV in a TO range arc but since the Dev's don't follow that rule why should players? And I don't need to be spoon fed the knowledge that there's a hidden AV in a mission every single time in a way that destroy any possibility of even a mild surprise.
By the way, there are no AVs in TO-range dev-created content. Players don't encounter AVs in dev-created content until level 15.
And finally, the devs also create defeat alls on giant maps, "find 20 hostages and 30 blinkies in Oranbega," high-end villainous content that forces players to face AVs with nukes, mezzes, massive damage and tier 9s no matter which contact they choose, and many other examples of poor design decisions. Player architects should be learning from these mistakes, not imitating them. -
I would recommend "Mercytown: The One with all the Fish" (ID #6017). I don't roleplay, so I don't know what would constitute "good to roleplay on," but it meets all your other requirements.
-
Quote:(Followed by a slew of posts on the merits or lack thereof of custom maps, and disparagement of the general playerbase's map-designing abilities.)
Either increase the available file size for Architect Missions, or update the map editor, so I don't have to use up half the available file size stacking desks to build a multi-floor warehouse. -
All I will say is that if they are going to add reflective effects to existing costume pieces, the reflective version should be an added option, like we have with "plain" and "metallic" on some pieces.
Firstly, being shiny isn't appropriate for all characters. Some of us like them as they are now.
Secondly, not everyone will be able to use Ultra graphics, and those that don't, can't really see how a highly reflective costume looks. I don't want to look stupid and not know it. -
Quote:Thanksgiving was three weeks ago, quit living in the past.Well, Whack-a-Mole #2711 is 1-54 (custom bosses -> Lts & EB -> Boss), though I've tested it with a level 8 dominator and was able to complete it. One more week for the Halloween Edition, afterwards it will be updated once again, not exactly sure to what though. Maybe Thanksgiving? Look out! It's a turkey Mole!
Since I don't feel like running anything epic today, tonight's arc is:
Whack-a-Mole: Halloween Edition
#2711
15 minutes from start to finish, tops, since the missions are timed. The Moles are humorous, and eminently whackable. Except for the ones with Build Up. Seriously, nobody's going to be playing this thing for the rewards anyway, so that little damper on fun factor is totally unnecessary.
Speaking of rewards... I beat the game, where's my prize? I demand an oversized neon pink Scooby Doo plushie, right now! I call shenanigans on the Carnie folk! SHENANIGANS!!!
It's cute and clever, just ditch the Build Up and make with the souvenir. -
Quote:If I eliminated arcs I've already played, there wouldn't be many recommendations left. I've already played a lot of arcs by people in this forum.I have a relatively new arc, Talos Vice (arc id 338380), set for level 12-20, which sounds about right for your current project.
Teen Phalanx Forever! (arc id 67335) is 15-30, also, though I know you've already played it.
This is turning out to be a review thread as well, so I'm only accepting suggestions for your own arcs. -
Another excellent arc gets Dev's Choice.
Gratz Cheshire Cat. -
Quote:I'm still hungry. Not hungry enough to eat double what I already ate, maybe, but it's up to me, as the author to decide "enough is enough" and walk away.Here's my best analogy for this: your story is at a restaurant and needs a certain amount of "food" (disk space). The Mission Architect interface serves you one plate (100K disk space) of food. Depending on your story, this may be just enough food, or maybe too much to eat, or maybe you're still hungry afterwards.
Suddenly, Dr. Aeon declares that dinner portions are being doubled. Now you get two plates (200K) of food! That's great, right?
How much food do you end up eating?
Some people had enough food already. Maybe they don't eat any more.
Some people were still a little hungry. They eat a little from the second plate.
Some people feel they have two plates in front of them, so they NEED TO EAT IT ALL. Even if they didn't really need it -- even if they feel kinda bloated at the end -- even if they were ALREADY a bit overweight -- they have 2 plates now, so why would they waste it?
The "healthy" choice is to eat just as much food as you need -- then stop. But if you just look around in a typical restaurant - most people don't do this.
tl,dr: More space is nice, but be careful that you don't end up bloating your story arc with filler missions or irrelevant details that don't support your story. Edit your story so it stays trim!
Don't be like those people who sue McDonald's because they're too fat.
Quote:Though I imagine that what this means is that we'll get some new features that require more space, like maybe power customization for custom mobs or cutscenes. (Oh please please let it be cutscenes!)
Quote:Just in case, you might want to take the "Final" tag off of any arc that you want to take advantage of this increased file limit on. Even if it's a ways off and the chances are slim, I know that I don't want to risk such an arc getting DCed and locked for editing in the meantime.
Quote:For arcs like this, I'm often forced to choose between keeping briefing/debriefing/clue/dialog text or custom models. And while it's currently popular to consider Venture to be wrong about everything, I have to agree with him on this subject: when presented with this choice, I will generally prefer to keep written text and cut the custom model. Your mileage may vary (I already see other responses in this thread where people chose the other route), but personally, I choose text over custom model because (a) I feel my arc gets a lot more bang for buck out of 6k of text (whether briefings, clues, dialog or souvenir) than 1 custom model, and (b) writing that text is way harder! So it's a bigger loss (to me) to cut it, than the custom model.
Quote:The "non-canon" arcs would probably benefit a lot though as they're already so squeezed on space; I could add a lot of stuff I was originally forced to cut. For Flower Knight TF, a few extra samurai models maybe, a special model for each patron AV, etc. Would this add a lot to the story? Hmm, well, maybe not. But it'd still be nice.
Quote:The danger would be for the next "non-canon" arc I write (if and when I write another) -- I'd want to try to force myself to cut my story arc to fit within 100k or 120k, rather than have my initial draft be a bloated 250k then have to cut down to 200k. This would be something of a matter of discipline. Probably not everyone would be willing or even want to do this, but from experience, I'm finding it's a lot nicer to start a story arc with some space to grow over time.